MINNEAPOLIS – The Hoosiers who had dared their fan base to dream in November and December look gone for good.

They were replaced in Minneapolis by an IU that reverted to the worst version of this team we’ve seen all season. One weighed down by its weaknesses and softened by its adversities. One that looked and played, as Saturday passed, like it knew it was about to lose its 10th game in 11 tries, and didn’t have the ability — or possibly the will — to do anything about it.

IU coach Archie Miller was left with little else to say, after an 84-63 defeat at previously slumping Minnesota that was as one-sided as the final score suggests. It has been an undeniably disappointing season in Bloomington, in part because it once promised so much more than this, but Saturday felt like more than just disappointment. It felt like humiliation, from which no one associated with IU’s men’s basketball program can hide.

“You can try to push as many buttons as you want to push,” Miller said postgame Saturday. “You need your best players, you need everybody moving in the right direction, rowing in the right direction, working as hard as they possibly can. …

“For us, this one, this is sort of a deal breaker. We have to make some real, in my opinion, drastic changes to the way we're doing things right now. We've got to get some guys' attention, and we need to get some guys to play better.”

“Everybody is human. Losses take their toll on everybody,” said senior forward Juwan Morgan, IU’s leading scorer with 14 points. “But at the same time, this is what guys signed up for. We have to be ready to play, night in and night out. It's just about not having a conscience. You have to go out there and shoot like it's supposed to go in and play like the next one's a win. You just can't go out there and play down.”

Responding to a different question postgame, Morgan said simply: “Nobody else is going to do it for us.”

The overarching message: Indiana isn’t together. Indiana doesn’t have anywhere near the required sense of urgency, despite getting pulled apart on that weakness time and again. Indiana’s leaders aren’t doing so effectively. It’s mid-February, and Miller is contemplating drastic changes, though the Hoosiers might be past the point of them making much difference.

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IU redshirt freshman returned to the court in his hometown after missing all but five minutes of this year with a concussion.
Zach Osterman, zach.osterman@indystar.com

“We have to recreate ourselves here a little bit,” Miller said. “As you try to recreate yourself at times, you're living and dying with the same mistakes.

“Eventually, you have to stop living with those mistakes and find out if somebody else can help you at times. We're searching, and the next two days are gonna be big, as we prepare for Tuesday.”

Miller’s first season in Bloomington often felt like a sort of year zero, an acknowledgment that he was handed an 18-win NIT team that promptly lost three players to the NBA, and that he would need time to rebuild the roster according to his own vision.

This preseason, any talk of lofty expectations, of Langford as a savior or Indiana as a Final Four contender came from outside the base. It’s a myth to suggest reasonable fans thought this team would soar that high.

But it’s also completely fair for those fans to have raised their own expectations on the back of a 12-2 start. Wins over Marquette, Louisville and Butler, plus a 3-0 beginning to Big Ten play, saw Indiana doing all of the things it has since forgotten how or lost the ability to do.

Feb 16, 2019; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Golden Gophers head coach Richard Pitino and his players react to a play against the Indiana Hoosiers in the second half at Williams Arena. The Minnesota Golden Gophers defeatd the Indiana Hoosiers 84-63. Mandatory Credit: David Berding-USA TODAY Sports David Berding, David Berding-USA TODAY Sports

This team was improving, defending, competing and winning as it was expected to once. As it expected of itself.

Nearly all of that feels lost now, like it happened two years ago, rather than two months. The Hoosiers are a shell of their pre-Christmas selves, desperately short on confidence and lacking even a basic ability to fix their problems.

Where does this slump end? At this point, it’s impossible to say. Maybe next November. But Saturday rammed home rudely the reality in front of Indiana here and now — there’s no hiding from this for anyone, from Miller on down.

“As much as losing sucks,” Morgan said, “it's only going to keep happening if guys don't really wake up ready to fight.”